The Skin Quilt Project

About The Skin Quilt Project:

The Skin Quilt Project is a documentary that explores colorism in the African-American community. The film addresses this complex issue through the stories of African-American quilters, and the tradition of an artform that celebrates its culture. The quilters speak of the influence of the African-American quilting tradition as a tool for encouraging an appreciation in the African-American cultural heritage.

Colorism has been a long disputed issue within the African-American community, however, filmmaker Lauren Cross speculates that African-American quilters are much more grounded in their African roots. As Quilt historian Carolyn Mazloomi explains, African-American quilters "are joined by the thread of a needle” in which the quilting medium leaves no room for “color issues.”

As many African-American quilters come from families who have passed down quilting techniques to their children and grandchildren, today’s quilters represent African-American men and women who have become concerned with telling the story of their cultural heritage. In The Skin Quilt Project, the quilters tell the story of skin color politics in African-American culture, yet realizing the power of quilting to empower self-confidence in their community.

About the Artist:

Lauren Cross is a writer, activist, and interdisciplinary artist working in mixed media, photography, media arts, and installation art. Her current research interests include the issues of colorism and the “color complex” within the African American community, and her current work addresses ideals of beauty, race, and skin complexion in media imagery. She is also the founder and editor of CVAAD Projects( www.cvaad.com), an online blog and resource for contemporary visual art of the African diaspora. She received her BA in Art, Design, and Media from Richmond, The American International University in London, England, and MFA in Visual Arts from the Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University, Cambridge, MA.

For more information,
please contact us at:
info@skinquiltproject.com

Quilting and Participant Links:
www.artbysshine.com
www.wendellgeorgebrown.net
http://blackthreads.blogspot.com
www.bluetrianglequiltguild.com
www.africanamericanartquilt.com
http://auburn.edu/academic/other
/geesbend/home.html
www.carolynlmazloomi.com/
http://richerichardsonartquilts.blogspot.com/
www.myspace.com/darianurbangriot
www.myspace.com/mahoganylbrowne

August 14

The Project in Context

Quilting has a significant history in the African American community, as a field of creative expression that has the ability to bring together and impart generations with cultural heritage.

The significance of quilting amongst black women in America can be traced back to slavery, such as the work of Harriet Powers. Generations of families have passed on quilting techniques to their offspring, leaving a significant legacy to be shared to the young in age. Throughout the past decade, quilting has also seen an uprise in its use by emerging quilters and quilting groups across the nation, as well as black artists using quilting as a medium or influence for their contemporary art practice. It is evident throughout history that quilting has engaged a certain discourse that references the past, tradition, and the emergence of new beginnings.

When we look at the presence of skin color biases in the African American community, we can see a similar parallel between the two. Like quilting, ideas around skin complexion have been passed down generation to generation.Skin-tone hierarchy systems can also be traced back to slavery, as they were used by plantations as a concept to create social classes and discord amongst the African slaves. Now centuries later, the affects of colorism^[1] has continued to divide and turn the black community against each other. Unlike quilting, the presence of “skin-tone inequality” has created a hidden barrier to our overall sense of racial freedom and equality.

Statistics have shown that black women tend to incur much more sociological affects from the politics of skin tone, from economical and social class to the men they marry. This notion also seems to reflect the tension experienced amongst the friendships of black women, where the risk of distrust and jealousy persist.

What is it about quilting that brings black women together? How does the quilting experience allow them to push aside their differences? Does quilting provide a platform to openly discuss what we have in common? Perhaps quilting allows one to recognize the relationship between our lives and others around us.

Colorism has often been the hidden “family secret” within the black community that is rarely discussed. The objective of this project is to begin to make strides towards closure, to see the links between quilting and skin. If quilting has provided opportunities for the enrichment of the black cultural heritage, how can quilting provide a means for us to understand and appreciate who we are? How can we begin to appreciate the “skin we’re in”?

^[1] Colorism is a term used to describe a system of discrimination where one experiences unjust or prejudicial treatment within their own race due to their skin complexion( light or dark).